Not only the butterflies: managing ants on road verges to benefit Phengaris (Maculinea) butterflies

Obligate myrmecophilic butterfly species, such as Phengaris (Maculinea) teleius and P. nausithous, have narrow habitat requirements. Living as a caterpillar in the nests of the ant species Myrmica scabrinodis and M. rubra, respectively, they can only survive on sites with both host ants and the host plant Great Burnet Sanguisorba officinalis. After having been reintroduced into a nature reserve in the Netherlands in 1990, both butterfly species expanded their distribution to linear landscape elements such as road verges and ditch edges outside this reserve. As additional habitat of both butterfly species, vegetation management of these landscape elements became important. Our results show that a management beneficial for Phengaris butterflies should aim to increase the nest density of Myrmica species, at the same time reducing the density of nests of the competitor Lasius niger or at least keeping them at a low density. Unfavourable grassland management under which L. niger thrives, includes not mowing or flail-cutting the grass, or depositing dredgings along the side of the ditch. Management favourable for the two Myrmica species differs, demanding some flexibility if both species are to benefit. M. scabrinodis is best supported with early mowing of the road verge vegetation or late mowing in the nature reserve, both of which result in an open vegetation and warm microclimate. In contrast, the nest sites of M. rubra should be left undisturbed during the summer, and mown in late autumn. Mowing of butterfly habitat should be avoided between mid-June and mid-September as this would remove the flowerheads of the Sanguisorba plants, on which the butterflies lay their eggs

At home on foreign meadows: the reintroduction of two Maculineae butterfly species

Maculinea butterflies live as obligate parasites of specific Myrmica host ants in meadow and heathland habitat maintained by low intensity landuse. Changes in agriculture caused the decline and extinction of many populations. In The Netherlands, Maculinea nausithous and M. teleius disappeared in the 1970s. In 1990, they were reintroduced following the recommendations of the IUCN. This study focuses on the evaluation of this reintroduction into the nature reserve Moerputten in the province of Northern Brabant. Population establishment and dispersal were monitored and accompanied by research on the impact of the reintroduction on species-specific genetic composition and behaviour. Maculinea teleius immediately established itself on one meadow, where the population still occurs today. Maculinea nausithous , being the more mobile species, colonized habitat patches with the specific host ant at higher distances. Three subpopulations were founded.At the small spatial scale the females of both species were able to select habitat patches with host plants and host ants to deposit their eggs, rather then loosing many offspring by random oviposition. At the ladscape scale the occurence of the populations was also strongly related to the presence of the specific host ant species. However, through the limited dispersal capacity of the adults high quality patches at greater distance remain uncolonized. Genetic analysis showed that the new populations have not experienced a bottleneck in numbers following the translocation. However, the populations experienced selection due to changed ecological conditions at the founder site, but ecologically relevant traits were apparently not affected.The conservation of the reintroduced population should concentrate on keeping a high habitat quality on the colonized sites and enabling the development of metapopulations by improving the management of potential sites within colonization distance. Ultimately, the persistence of the populations depends on the availability of an extensive network of suitable habitat patches. This requires conservation management at a landscape scale. This study emphasizes that a carefully planned and implemented reintroduction can be a successful tool for species conservation if both small and large spatial scales are taken into account.</p

Status and perspective of detector databases in the CMS experiment at the LHC

This note gives an overview at a high conceptual level of the various databases that capture the information concerning the CMS detector. The detector domain has been split up into four, partly overlapping parts that cover phases in the detector life cycle: construction, integration, configuration and condition, and a geometry part that is common to all phases. The discussion addresses the specific content and usage of each part, and further requirements, dependencies and interfaces

Conservation of Maculinea butterflies at landscape level

To enhance the establishment of new populations of reintroduced Maculinea species and increase dispersal between sites, a regional action plan has been started. Public communities, nature conservation organizations, amateurs and farmers participate in the agreements on management of sites. The study describes the changes in the ant fauna in the Action Plan Area after changes in the management of canal borders, road verges and ditch sides

Assessing Butterflies in Europe. Executive summary

1. The Assessing Butterflies in Europe (ABLE) project was an EU Parliamentary Pilot project with a duration of two years (beginning of December 2019 to the end of November 2020) and received €800,000 of funding via a service contract with Directorate General Environment. 2. The mandate and rationale from the EU Parliament was: “The project aims at developing a suite of EU Lepidoptera indicators which can help improve conservation measure and assess progress in implementing EU policies and legislation such as the EU Biodiversity Strategy to 2020 and the EU Habitats Directive. Besides providing a highly relevant indicator for measuring progress in terms of managing and restoring Natura 2000 sites, it would also contribute to monitoring progress on Target 3 of the EU Biodiversity Strategy, which aims to increase the contribution of agriculture and forestry to maintaining and enhancing biodiversity. In particular, the pilot should deliver a representative indicator to help monitor the impact of the Common Agricultural Policy on grassland biodiversity. It will also provide data to produce a climate change indicator, thereby contributing to the ongoing revision of climate change adaptation strategies. Indicators will also be possible for woodland, wetland and urban habitats.” 3. The ABLE project was delivered by a consortium of the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, Butterfly Conservation Europe, Butterfly Conservation UK, De Vlinderstichting and HelmholtzZentrum für Umweltforschung GmbH – UFZ. Considerable in-kind contributions were provided by Butterfly Conservation partners across Europe. 4. There is mounting evidence of widespread declines in the diversity and abundance of insects across the globe. The ABLE project is particularly timely in helping to develop capacity for monitoring of insects and assessing the status of butterflies in the EU. 5. There are 482 butterfly species in Europe (451 occurring within the EU27), breeding in a wide range of habitats. Butterflies react quickly to change and are considered to be good biological indicators, especially of other insects and pollinators. Monitoring butterflies can help shed light on changes in these important groups. 6. The main aims of the ABLE project were to collate butterfly monitoring data across Europe, to facilitate the start of new schemes in the EU, and to develop indicators to help policy design and evaluation. 7. Following the mandate from the EU Parliament for this Pilot project, we make the following key recommendations: i. Use Butterfly Monitoring Scheme (eBMS) data and indicators for EU policy design; to inform resource planning, especially for Member State’s Prioritised Action Frameworks (PAFs); and to track, evaluate and adjust EU and MSs policy implementation, including the EU Green Deal, EU Biodiversity Strategy 2030 and the EU Farm to Fork Strategy, to help reverse pollinator declines. ii. Use Member State and Article 17 data on butterflies to inform the design, implementation and evaluation of the EU CAP and MS’s CAP Strategic Plans; to ensure Forestry plans include more grassland refuges and herb rich rides and edges; and that urban planning and regional developments invest in pollinator habitats. Butterfly Conservation Europe 2020 \textbar ASSESSING BUTTERFLIES IN EUROPE – EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 6 iii. Use available Butterfly Monitoring Scheme data to strengthen the quality of assessments of conservation Status of Habitats Directive listed habitats and species in meeting mandatory reporting requirements under Art 17 of the Directive iv. Invest in linking butterfly data with land use and management data, including implementation of Natura 2000 Management Plans, Land Parcel Information system and Satellite data to help evaluate conservation effectiveness v. Support additional monitoring of rare and vulnerable butterflies (including endemics and those not listed on the Habitats Directive) and designate some additional Protected Areas to sustain and enhance the quality of remaining areas that are important for these Red Listed butterflies and so prevent further extinctions vi. Invest in further capacity building and cooperation among citizen scientists, professionals, farmers and authorities to monitor and record abundance of butterflies, moths and other pollinators, including supporting coordination, training and growth of citizen science eBMS schemes (as recommended by EU Pollinator Expert Group); filling data gaps and developing tools and expertise to gather and integrate data from various sources. vii. ABLE shows that Citizen Science eBMS are cost effective, delivering very good value for money. New citizen science Butterfly Monitoring Schemes are needed in Denmark, Greece, Latvia, Romania and Slovakia. Together with further support to sustain and increase transects across most EU MSs, especially in the ten schemes newly created during the ABLE project. The ten EU27 countries where new Citizen Science butterfly monitoring schemes were begun in 2019/2020, with the support of ABLE, BCE partners and active volunteers, are Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Hungary, Italy, Malta, Poland and Portugal. Together with Belgium, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Luxemburg, Lithuania (currently dormant), Netherlands, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, there are now 22 EU(27) Member States with butterfly monitoring schemes. With several more outside the EU, including Norway, Switzerland and the UK (which has the longest running scheme). 8. This Executive Summary accompanies detailed technical reports on the three project tasks: development of butterfly indicators, development of butterfly monitoring networks, and tools to support butterfly monitoring and analysis

Measurement of the W+W-gamma Cross Section and Direct Limits on Anomalous Quartic Gauge Boson Couplings at LEP

The process e+e- -> W+W-gamma is analysed using the data collected with the L3 detector at LEP at a centre-of-mass energy of 188.6GeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 176.8pb^-1. Based on a sample of 42 selected W+W- candidates containing an isolated hard photon, the W+W-gamma cross section, defined within phase-space cuts, is measured to be: sigma_WWgamma = 290 +/- 80 +/- 16 fb, consistent with the Standard Model expectation. Including the process e+e- -> nu nu gamma gamma, limits are derived on anomalous contributions to the Standard Model quartic vertices W+W- gamma gamma and W+W-Z gamma at 95% CL: -0.043 GeV^-2 < a_0/Lambda^2 < 0.043 GeV^-2 0.08 GeV^-2 < a_c/Lambda^2 < 0.13 GeV^-2 0.41 GeV^-2 < a_n/Lambda^2 < 0.37 GeV^-2

Measurement of Exclusive rho+rho- Production in Mid-Virtuality Two-Photon Interactions and Study of the gamma gamma* -> rho rho Process at LEP

Exclusive rho+rho- production in two-photon collisions between a quasi-real photon, gamma, and a mid-virtuality photon, gamma*, is studied with data collected at LEP at centre-of-mass energies root(s)=183-209GeV with a total integrated luminosity of 684.8pb^-1. The cross section of the gamma gamma* -> rho+ rho- process is determined as a function of the photon virtuality, Q^2, and the two-photon centre-of-mass energy, W_gg, in the kinematic region: 0.2GeV^2 < Q^2 <0.85GeV^2 and 1.1GeV < W_gg < 3GeV. These results, together with previous L3 measurements of rho0 rho0 and rho+ rho- production, allow a study of the gamma gamma* -> rho rho process over the Q^2-region 0.2GeV^2 < Q^2 < 30 GeV^2

Neutral-Current Four-Fermion Production in e+e- Interactions at LEP

Neutral-current four-fermion production, e+e- -> ffff is studied in 0.7/fb of data collected with the L3 detector at LEP at centre-of-mass energies root(s)=183-209GeV. Four final states are considered: qqvv, qqll, llll and llvv, where l denotes either an electron or a muon. Their cross sections are measured and found to agree with the Standard Model predictions. In addition, the e+e- -> Zgamma* -> ffff process is studied and its total cross section at the average centre-of-mass energy 196.6GeV is found to be 0.29 +/- 0.05 +/- 0.03 pb, where the first uncertainty is statistical and the second systematic, in agreement with the Standard Model prediction of 0.22 pb. Finally, the mass spectra of the qqll final states are analysed to search for the possible production of a new neutral heavy particle, for which no evidence is found

Search for Anomalous Couplings in the Higgs Sector at LEP

Anomalous couplings of the Higgs boson are searched for through the processes e^+ e^- -> H gamma, e^+ e^- -> e^+ e^- H and e^+ e^- -> HZ. The mass range 70 GeV < m_H < 190 GeV is explored using 602 pb^-1 of integrated luminosity collected with the L3 detector at LEP at centre-of-mass energies sqrt(s)=189-209 GeV. The Higgs decay channels H -> ffbar, H -> gamma gamma, H -> Z\gamma and H -> WW^(*) are considered and no evidence is found for anomalous Higgs production or decay. Limits on the anomalous couplings d, db, Delta(g1z), Delta(kappa_gamma) and xi^2 are derived as well as limits on the H -> gamma gamma and H -> Z gamma decay rates